QAMISHLI: Syria’s Kurdish authorities said Thursday they were delaying controversial municipal elections which prompted threats from arch-foe Turkiye and concerns from their main ally the United States.
The elections, originally scheduled for June 11 and now postponed “until at least August,” would be the first to extend to all seven regions under the semi-autonomous region’s control, home to both Arabs and Kurds, since Syria’s fragmentation during its civil war.
The elections commission said they delayed the vote “in response to requests from political parties and alliances” who complained the campaign period was too short.
Local officials and candidates insist the elections are crucial for local representation and will help improve public services in the region.
But their detractors have accused them of separatism and monopolizing power or voiced concerns that the conditions for fair and free elections are nonexistent in Syria’s Kurdish-held northeast.
Around 18 parties, including the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), as well as independents are expected to run in the vote, PYD co-chair Saleh Muslim told AFP.
He said the elections had been delayed for “internal” reasons, but added “perhaps the elections commission also took the political circumstances into account.”
Syria’s Kurds, who have suffered decades of marginalization and oppression by Syria’s ruling Baath party, have come to rule about a quarter of Syria, including Arab majority areas, after government forces withdrew.
The armed wing of the PYD is the powerful People’s Protection Units (YPG) that dominates the Syrian Democratic Forces — the region’s de facto army.
The Kurdish-led forces spearheaded the fight to dislodge the Daesh group from its last Syrian territorial bastion in 2019 with American support.
But Turkiye views the PYD and YPG as offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it has outlawed as a “terrorist” group.
Ankara, which controls two border strips in Syria’s north, views the upcoming polls as evidence of separatism.
Since 2016, Turkiye has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatening to launch a new operation to prevent the election from taking place.
He described the vote as an “aggressive action against the territorial integrity” of Ankara and Damascus “under the pretext of an election.”
On Thursday, Turkish state television TRT welcomed the decision to delay the vote, adding “Turkiye’s position has borne fruit.”
The Kurdish polls have also drawn the ire of their main backer Washington, which counts Turkiye as a key NATO ally.
“Any elections that occur in Syria should be free, fair, transparent, and inclusive,” said US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel in a statement last week.
“We don’t think that the conditions for such elections are in place in NE Syria,” he said, adding the US had urged local authorities “not to proceed with elections.”
Syria’s Kurds delay controversial local elections
https://arab.news/wfprk
Syria’s Kurds delay controversial local elections
- The elections commission said they delayed the vote “in response to requests from political parties and alliances” who complained the campaign period was too short
Iranian currency plunges to record low after fresh US move
- It remains unclear how funding for Iranian activists and opposition figures would be affected by the USAID decision
TEHRAN: Iran’s currency plunged on Wednesday to a record low of 850,000 rials to $1 after US President Donald Trump ordered a restart to the “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Tehran.
Trump’s order calls for halting Iran’s oil exports and pursuing a “snapback” of UN sanctions on Iran. However, he also suggested he didn’t want to impose those sanctions and wanted to reach a deal with Iran.
The move comes as Trump’s moves to freeze spending on foreign aid and overhaul, or even end, the US Agency for International Development have been lauded in Iranian state media.
Meanwhile, ordinary Iranians worry what all this could mean for them.
“It encourages hard-liners inside Iran to continue repressions because they feel the US would have less capability in supporting Iranian people who seek freedom,” said Maryam Faraji, a 27-year-old waitress in a coffee shop in northern Tehran.
Iranian media say Trump’s cuts could stop the opposition in Iran
The state-run IRNA news agency said that “cutting the budget of foreign-based opposition” could “affect the sphere of relations” between Tehran and Washington.
Newspapers, like the conservative Hamshhari daily, described Iran’s opposition as “counterrevolutionaries” who had been “celebrating” Trump’s election as heralding the “last days of life of the Islamic Republic.”
They then “suddenly faced the surprise of cut funding from their employer,” the newspaper crowed.
Even the reformist newspaper Hammihan compared it to a “cold shower” for opponents of Iran’s theocracy abroad, an idea also expressed by the Foreign Ministry.
“Those financial resources are not charity donations,” Esmail Bagahei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said during a briefing with reporters. “They are wages paid in exchange for services.”
It remains unclear how funding for Iranian activists and opposition figures would be affected by the USAID decision.
The lion’s share of money for civil society in Iran has come through the US State Department’s Near East Regional Democracy fund, known by the acronym NERD, which grew as an American response to the Green Movement protests in 2009.
Gaza is integral part of future Palestinian state, EU spokesperson says
- “The EU remains firmly committed to a two-state solution,” the EU spokesperson said
BRUSSELS: Gaza should be an essential part of a future Palestinian state, said a European Union foreign policy spokesperson on Wednesday, adding that the EU was committed to a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.
President Donald Trump has proposed for the United States to take over war-ravaged Gaza after resettling Palestinians elsewhere. The comments have drawn global condemnation.
“We took note of President Trump’s comments. The EU remains firmly committed to a two-state solution, which we believe is the only path to long-term peace for both Israelis and Palestinians,” the EU spokesperson said.
“Gaza is an integral part of a future Palestinian state,” he added.
Israel says to boycott UN Human Rights Council over ‘anti-Semitism’
- Israel is an observer state and not one of the 47 member states of the UNHRC
JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Wednesday accused the UN Human Rights Council of anti-Semitism as he announced Israel would boycott the United Nations body.
“This body has focused on attacking a democratic country and propagating anti-Semitism, instead of promoting human rights,” Saar said in a post on X.
The minister cited Israel being “the only country with an agenda item dedicated solely to it” and the subject of more resolutions than “Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela combined.”
“Israel joins the United States and will not participate in the UNHRC,” Saar said.
In response to the boycott announcement, UNHRC spokesman Pascal Sim said Israel had “observer state status” within the rights body and was “not one of the 47 member states.”
As such, it cannot “withdraw from the council,” he added.
Israel has previously participated in periodic reviews that UN members must submit to the UNHRC.
For several years, however, it has boycotted debates on the “human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order saying Washington was withdrawing from a number of United Nations bodies, including its Human Rights Council.
The executive order also said it withdrew the United States from the UN relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, with which Israel cut ties on Thursday accusing the body of providing cover for Hamas militants.
Why pressure is growing to finalize UK-GCC free trade agreement
- Britain’s financial woes and US President Donald Trump’s trade wars loom over negotiators working to get deal over the line
- The deal would eliminate tariffs, reduce trade barriers, and facilitate business cooperation in key sectors like AI and renewables
LONDON: The UK’s economic fragility and global turmoil from President Donald Trump’s trade wars have given increased impetus for Britain to reach a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Talks for a deal between the six-nation bloc and Britain are continuing apace after restarting in September and are said to be at an advanced stage.
Yet the agreement could not come soon enough for the UK government, which is struggling to breathe life into a stagnant economy.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has prioritized growth, and a GCC FTA would bring a significant boost to the UK’s finances and the governing Labour Party’s political fortunes.
The benefits would also be plentiful for Gulf countries, many of which have embarked on extensive reforms to diversify their economies away from hydrocarbons and toward modern sectors.
Details of the negotiations are closely guarded, but economists and experts told Arab News they believe a final deal is close and that there is will from both sides to get the agreement in place.
“The UK government has signaled that it wants to attract more investment into the economy, and its new drive for growth should certainly give momentum to the determination of UK negotiators to push forward the talks on the FTA toward a satisfactory conclusion,” said Bandar Reda, secretary-general and CEO of the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce.
“With a fair degree of optimism then we can probably look forward to a positive outcome being achieved a little sooner than previously expected.”
The UK believes a GCC FTA would increase bilateral trade by 16 percent and could add an extra £8.6 billion ($10.7 billion) a year to the existing £57.4 billion worth of annual trade between the two sides.
Officials say it could also boost UK annual workers’ wages by around £600 million to £1.1 billion every year and increase UK GDP by between £1.6 and £3.1 billion by 2035.
The UK has been looking to forge fresh trade deals since leaving the EU, its biggest trading partner, in 2020.
With already strong trade links and historic ties to Gulf countries, establishing an agreement with the GCC as a whole became a priority.
Consisting of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait, the GCC economic and political union is also seeking to make more trade agreements as a bloc.
A UK government report published in 2022 said an FTA with the GCC “is an opportunity to boost trade with an economically and strategically important group of countries, support jobs and advance our global interests.”
After the July election brought in his new UK government, Starmer prioritized relations with the Gulf, and a seventh round of trade negotiations got underway.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, visited the region in September and delegations have traveled back and forth since.
The latest negotiation team from the GCC was in London last month, according to the Department for Business and Trade.
Starmer traveled to Saudi Arabia in December and met with Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He also visited the UAE and hosted the Qatari emir in London.
Several deals were announced during those meetings, as the new government made clear that attracting foreign investment from Gulf countries was key to its growth strategy.
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At the same time, the economic pressures on Starmer’s administration have increased. Despite a relatively strong start to 2024, the UK economy failed to grow in the second half of the year.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves came under fire for her first budget, which dented business confidence with a series of tax hikes.
With UK borrowing costs hitting their highest level for several years last month, boosting trade with a bloc like the GCC through an FTA would be a significant boon for Starmer.
But it is not just the UK’s domestic economic woes that are looming over negotiators. With the US administration’s threats to impose tariffs on both allies and adversaries causing global financial uncertainty, Gulf countries will also be keen to ease trade restrictions with a major partner like the UK.
“One effect of the threat of tariffs might be to add urgency to the negotiations to conclude the UK-GCC FTA,” Reda, of the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, told Arab News.
Primarily, the agreement would remove or reduce tariff barriers to trade between GCC countries and the UK, easing the flow of goods and services.
The average tariff applied to UK exports by the GCC is around 5.5 percent, whereas imports from the Gulf face a 5.8 percent levy. However, the UK places no tariffs on oil and gas bought from GCC countries, and this accounts for most of the import value.
Still, removing the tariffs would help businesses on both sides by reducing costs but would particularly benefit the UK given that its exports account for 60 percent of total trade.
Perhaps more important, according to Freddie Neve, lead Middle East associate at the London-based Asia House think tank, would be removing red tape faced by importers and exporters.
“While reducing tariffs on these goods is an obvious target in the negotiations, arguably a larger opportunity relates to the reduction of non-tariff barriers,” Neve said. “These relate to regulations, standards, and procedures required of foreign firms to do business.
“A government analysis published before negotiations counted over 4,500 non-tariff measures applied by the GCC on the UK. Naturally, some of these will have been ameliorated by recent Gulf economic reforms, but an FTA that reduces these barriers would make it easier for UK companies to operate in and across the GCC.”
While the timing of the FTA would be good for the UK it also fits perfectly with the timetable of economic diversification underway in the GCC.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE in particular are moving away from reliance on oil revenues to modern, technology-driven economies.
Investing in the UK means they are able to tap into services and expertise in sectors where Britain has a competitive advantage, such as technology, life sciences, creative industries, education and financial services.
In particular, the UK’s 2022 assessment predicted an FTA would allow for cooperation in “industries of the future” such as artificial intelligence and renewable energy, in which Gulf countries are investing heavily.
“Over the past three years, innovations in AI and related sectors to do with the digital economy, e-commerce, advanced data and computing have developed enormously,” Reda said. “The Gulf states have all been seeking to position themselves at the forefront of these developments that are reshaping how we do business.
“These areas open up major new areas for UK-GCC cooperation as we all seek to maximize the potential offered by AI and cutting-edge tech. The FTA should give a tremendous boost to cooperation in these industries of the future.”
INNUMBERS
• 16% Potential increase in bilateral trade resulting from UK-GCC free trade agreement.
• £8.6bn What the FTA could add to the existing £57.4bn worth of annual bilateral trade.
• £1.6-£3.1bn Possible boost to UK GDP by 2035, raising wages to £1.1bn per year.
An FTA negotiation is a vast and complex process and there may well still be sticking points to be ironed out before a final deal is reached.
Douglas Alexander, the UK’s minister of state for trade policy and economic security, said in December that negotiators on the GCC agreement continued to have “constructive discussions on areas of sustainable trade,” such as environment and labor.
MPs have raised questions over whether the UK should be focusing on a GCC-wide agreement rather than individual deals with Gulf countries, citing variations in policies and regulations across the bloc.
But the GCC countries have been developing their concerted approach to trade and are pursuing similar agreements with the EU, China, and Turkiye.
“Negotiations with a bloc are always more challenging than bilateral deals,” Justin Alexander, a director at US consultancy Khalij Economics, told Arab News. “However, the GCC is functioning in the most joined-up way I have seen in my career, and all the GCC members are important partners for the UK, so it is highly motivated to make this work.”
He said he was not aware of any significant obstacles remaining in the talks and believed the deal is very near completion.
“The most significant element of the UK-GCC FTA for both sides will be the fact that it has been done, setting a precedent for further trade deals for both parties,” Alexander said. “Both sides are open, globally integrated economies and would benefit from modern trade deals.”
The Department for Business and Trade said trade deals played a “vital role” in the government’s mission for economic growth.
“We’re seeking a modern trade deal with the Gulf as a priority, and our focus is securing a deal that delivers real value to businesses on both sides, rather than getting it done by a specific date,” the department said.
’I won’t leave. Put that in your brain.’ Palestinians reject Trump’s call to expel them from Gaza
- Hundreds of thousands in the territory rushed to return to their homes – even if destroyed – as soon as they could following the ceasefire
- Palestinians across the region saw in it an effort to erase them completely from their homeland
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Saeed Abu Elaish’s wife, two of his daughters and two dozen others from his extended family were killed by Israeli airstrikes over the past 15 months.
His house in northern Gaza was destroyed. He and surviving family now live in a tent set up in the rubble of his home.
But he says he will not be driven out, after President Donald Trump called for transferring all Palestinians from Gaza so the United States could take over the devastated territory and rebuild it for others. Rights groups said his comments were tantamount to a call for “ethnic cleansing” and forcible expulsion.
“We categorically reject and will resist any plans to deport and transfer us from our land,” he said from the Jabaliya refugee camp.
Trump’s call for depopulating Gaza has stunned Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands in the territory rushed to return to their homes – even if destroyed – as soon as they could following the ceasefire reached last month between Israel and Hamas.
Though some experts speculated that Trump’s proposal might be a negotiating tactic, Palestinians across the region saw in it an effort to erase them completely from their homeland, a continuation of the expulsion and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.
That event is known among Palestinians as the “Nakba,” Arabic for the “Catastrophe.” Trump’s statement — a wild swing away from years of US policy — meshed with calls from far-right politicians in Israel to push Palestinians out of Gaza, particularly into Egypt.
“We don’t want a repeat of our ancestors’ tragedy,” said Abu Elaish, a health care worker.
Like many, Abu Elaish could point to his own family’s experience. In May 1948, Israeli forces expelled his grandparents and other Palestinians and demolished their homes in the village of Hoj in what’s now southern Israel just outside the Gaza Strip, he said. The family resettled in Gaza’s Jabaliya camp, which over the decades grew into a densely built urban neighborhood. Israeli troops leveled most of the district during fierce fighting with Hamas militants over recent months.
Mustafa Al-Gazzar was 5 years old, he said, when his family and other residents were forced to flee as Israeli forces in 1948 attacked their town of Yabneh in what is now central Israel.
Now in his 80s, he sat outside his home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, flattened by an airstrike, and said it was unthinkable to go after surviving 15 months of war.
“Are you crazy, you think I would leave?” he said. “You think you’ll expel me abroad and bring other people in my place? … I would rather live in my tent, under rubble. I won’t leave. Put that in your brain.”
“Instead of being sent abroad, I should return to my original land where I was born and will die,” he said, referring to Yabneh, located near what is now the central Israeli city of Yavneh. He said Trump should be seeking a two-state solution. “This is the ideal, clear solution, peace for the Israelis and peace for the Palestinians, living side by side,” he said.
In his comments Tuesday alongside visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said Palestinians from Gaza should be resettled in lands in Egypt, Jordan or elsewhere, promising them a “beautiful place.” Egypt and Jordan have both rejected Trump’s call to resettle Palestinians on their soil.
Trump said the US would take over Gaza and rebuild it into a “Riviera of the Middle East” for “the world’s people,” dismissing the idea that Palestinians would refuse to leave or want to return.
Amna Omar, a 71-year-old from the central Gaza town of Deir Al-Balah, called Trump a “madman.”
Omar was able to go to Egypt during the war after her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In Cairo, doctors told them his cancer had gone untreated for too long and he died in October.
She said she intends to go back home as soon as she can, as did other Palestinians in Egypt.
“Gaza is our land, our home. We as Gazans have the right to the land and want to rebuild it,” she said. “I don’t want to die in Egypt like my husband. I want to die at home.”
Palestinians have shown a powerful determination to return to their homes after nearly the entire population was displaced by the war. Joyous crowds streamed back to northern Gaza and Rafah, both of which were devastated by Israeli bombardment and ground offensives.
With their neighborhoods reduced to landscapes of rubble, many returnees are homeless, water is scarce and electricity is largely non-existent in most areas. Still, for most, the destruction has not diminished their will to stay.
“We remain here, even if it means living in the rubble of our homes — better that than living in humiliation elsewhere,” said Ibrahim Abu Rizk, who returned to Rafah to find his home in ruins. “For a year and a half, we have been slaughtered, bombed, and destroyed, only to then leave just like that?”
The ceasefire deal brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, calls for a return of Palestinians to their homes as well as a massive international reconstruction effort in its third phase – assuming Israel and Hamas can reach a deal on who will govern the territory.
International law forbids the forced removal of populations. The Israeli rights group B’tselem said Trump’s statement “constitutes a call for ethnic cleansing through uprooting and forcibly transferring some 2 million people. This is Trump and Netanyahu’s roadmap for a second Nakba of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
Palestinian refugees have long demanded they be allowed to return to homes in what is now Israel, citing the right to return widely recognized for refugees under international law. Israel argues that right does not apply to the Palestinians and says a mass return would end the Jewish majority in the country.
Throughout the 15-month war in Gaza, many Palestinians expressed fear that Israel’s goal was to drive the population into neighboring Egypt. The government denied that aim, though some hard-right members of the coalition called for encouraging Palestinians to leave Gaza and for restoring Jewish settlements there. The Israeli-occupied West Bank — home to more than 500,000 settlers — has also seen more than a year of escalated violence.
The rejection of Trump’s call was echoed by Palestinians in the West Bank and in surrounding Arab countries like Jordan and Lebanon that are also home to large refugee populations.
“If he wants to displace the population of Gaza,” Mohammed Al-Amiri, a resident in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said of Trump, “then he should return them to their original homeland from which they were displaced in 1948, inside Israel, in the depopulated villages.”
